Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Karen Mobley on June 4, 2011 at 3:57pm

Bill,  I think that there are many places where "business gets done" that is not business.  I suggest to people that they can meet clients (I work in the arts) through civic and community involvement.  Arts organizations, churches, youth activities, neighborhood councils, and other community groups can be good places to make friends, get referrals, and make connections. Working side by side with someone for a few hours on a fun run, an art festival or a neighborhood cleanup can work wonders for meeting people you normally wouldn't meet. They might not be the angel investors but if you are marketing a product or service it could be just the right thing.  For a directory of all the arts organizations, you can go to www.spokanearts.org and go to resources and click on the arts directory. Of course, it works best if someone is sincere in being in service to others. K

Permalink Reply by Liz White on June 12, 2011 at 10:06pm

I love your suggestion Karen. Thanks for the insight!

-Liz

Permalink Reply by Susan Stewart-Baldwin on June 4, 2011 at 5:35pm

Hey Bill...

A couple of groups top of mind:

Offline - National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) - www.nawbonw.org

Offline - Community-Minded Enterprises - www.community-minded.org/economic

Online/Offline - Spokane Entrepreneurs Meetup Group - www.meetup.com/the-spokane-entrepreneurs-meetup-group

There are definitely a lot of niche groups out there, too.  I love the entrepreneurial spirit here in Spokane.  I moved here from the Silicon Valley and worked with a lot of entrepreneurs/start-ups in my former career.  This said I feel like the "opportunity" is truly open to EVERYONE here -- perhaps, because it is such a close-knit community.  The local support is amazing!

I know we will be talking more...

Susan

 

 

 

Permalink Reply by Michael Carlson on June 5, 2011 at 8:17am

As a small business marketing consultant I share with my clients networking opportunities in the Spokane area.

Here is a list I have compiled.


I would love to receive the list you put together when you are done so I can update my list.

Of course things constantly change so you might want to check on the contact times and meeting places in this list which was compiled about one year ago.

Networking organizations Spokane

This is a list of networking organization in and near Spokane


Leads and referral groups
Leads and referral groups are organized for the most part on the premise that there are only one of each industry represented in each group. For example only one insurance agent. It is possible that a group may have a life insurance agent and a property insurance agent but they need to stay in the category they are representing while interacting with the group.
In most cases these groups meet once a week for 1.5 hours. There are free groups with less requirement such as attendance and participation and there are groups that charge and do have requirements.

• BNI Northwest, Business Network International Washington
BNI has eight chapters in the Spokane area. There is a significant cost to join and they do have attendance and participation requirements. In my opinion, if you have the funds this is a good organization to choose.
Go to the website and you can click on different chapters to see the meeting times and what businesses are represented. Choose to attend by whether or not your industry is represented and what referral opportunities are there for you in each group. You can attend each group twice for free.
www.bninw.com

BNA
• The Business Network Alliance
BNA is very similar to BNI but with out costs and requirements. Go to website
and check out the chapters.
www.thebna.net

o •

Liberty Lake LeTip - business networking, Spokane WA
Le Tip is an organization very similar to BNI. There is a cost and there are definitely requirements.
www.libertyletip.com

Momentum- Was started recently by an ex-BNI member and follows almost the very same format.
www.spokanemomentum.com



Spokane Business Network - Business Networking and Referrals.
I don’t know a lot about this group. It seems to be a free online referral group. Check it out.
www.spokanebusinessnetwork.com

Spokane Business Builders
Again very similar to BNI with costs and requirements.
www.spokanebusinessbuilders.com

The Spokane Referral Network is an association of business professionals who meet to exchange business referrals, educate one another about our professions, and for fellowship.. Membership is limited by business category. Only one member per category is allowed.509-484-6441 509-720-1595 at Old European Restaurant 7640 N. Division St, every Thursday 7 AM www.spokanesrn.com
Business Networking Group – meets every Tuesday from 7-8:30 a.m. For location and information, call Rand Paget at 995-7771.
This is all of the information I have on this one.






Womens organizations-
o Spokane: Spokane Business Women's Network: Leatrice W. Noble: 509-467-2391: lwn@bigplanet.com: Regular Meetings: Last Thursday/month for breakfast at 7:00am, from September – June www.nafe.com/web?service=vpage/414
American Business Women's Association 509-325-4967

Industry specific groups-
Spokane Home builders Assoc. http://www.shba.com/
Washington Restaurant Association www.wrahome.com

Master mind groups- My Business Advocate (509) 235-1408
http://mba-online.ning.com/
I belong to the True North chapter

Neighborhood Business associations-
East Spokane business district- spokaneinternationaldistrict.com 509-534-0694
Garland business district www.clickspokane.com/garland/business.
Greater Hillyard Business Association- call 847-5313
Downtown Spokane Partnership 509.456.0580
North Monroe Business District 509-326-798656.0580
South Perry Business & Neighborhood Association (SPBNA) 217-0768

Chambers
www.spokanevalleychamber.org
spokaneholisticchamberofcommerce.com

www.greaterspokane.org




• ITEX Trade barter organization Highly recommended (Launch Pad should join. This would be a great fit for your organization)
The local ITEX group is about 300 businesses that trade services back and forth. This great for new businesses just getting started. The way it works is that if you need to get your car fixed you would go to the ITEX car repair member and use your trade credit you have earned. When the car repair guy needs his carpets cleaned he uses his trade credit to get this done. The carpet cleaner may call you up and use your services using his trade credit. You don’t have to only trade straight back and forth with the person who needs your service. ITEX does charge an affordable percentage fee for their services. I would absolutely look into this.

When you go to website click on brokers directory and put in Washington and then click on Mark Washburn. He is the best broker in the area.

You can visit the visitors area but I would suggest you just call up Mark and ask him questions. He is a straight shooter and takes great care of his clients.

His number is 509-482-2700 Please-Mention my name- Michael Carlson
www.itex.com
o

o
Meetup groups- This organization promotes groups of like mined people meeting together. This particular one is the entrepreneurs group.
Checkout the other groups in area as well

o
http://www.meetup.com/The-Spokane-Entrepreneurs-Meetup-Group/member...



North Spokane Christian Business network group- Deer Park
/
http://www.meetup.com/North-Spokane-Christian-Business-Network-Mark...

Business Networking Group – meets every Tuesday from 7-8:30 a.m. For location and information, call Rand Paget at 995-7771.



Social networking

LaunchPad - INW -
www.launchpadinw.com
•My space
Face book



I hope this information helps you.
If you have questions please contact me.

I can be reached at 847-5313
tarmarspokane@gmail.com
www.targetmarketspokane.com
www.affordablewebsitespokane.com


Michael Carlson
Target Marketing Spokane

Permalink Reply by Damian Fischer on June 6, 2011 at 6:40am

Very very  nice list Michael. Impressive even. You clearly have spent some time putting together a more then fair representation of the -programs available.  There is one more that I think you should add though and that is SCORE-www.scorespokane.org  (509) 353-2821

Permalink Reply by Steve Faust on June 5, 2011 at 11:14am

The New Ventures Lab/Hogan Program at Gonzaga University provides resources to help with development of business plans.

Spokane Neighborhood Economic Development Alliance (SNEDA) offers small business & micro-lending loan programs - contact Mark Wrenn or Thomas Speight at 444-7633 for more info.

 

Spokane Neighborhood Action Program (SNAP) also has a loan program for eligible small businesses.

Permalink Reply by Teri Stripes on June 6, 2011 at 8:25am

Bill, we have been trying to build this info over the years and we are looking to find a more comprehensive list to link to - here is a link to a list of partners on our site

 http://www.developingspokane.org/links/default.aspx.

Permalink Reply by Bill Kalivas on June 6, 2011 at 8:35am

Thanks for the input everyone! We are creating a new resource for each community and will share the data as soon as we compile everything. Hopefully later this week, stay tuned and thanks again, this was great info!

Permalink Reply by Michael Mullin on June 6, 2011 at 2:40pm

Bill, I'm not sure if this fits your request but there is a wonderful government financing program for businesses that can't obtain institutional loans.  The Tri County Economic Development  is based in Colville but serves numerous counties.

Call (509) 684-4712. TEDD can provide financing your for new, existing or expanding business in Eastern Washington (Adams, Asotin, Ferry, Garfield, Grant, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Stevens, Whitman, and rural Spokane Counties), the Rural Opportunities Loan Fund at the District may be able to help.

 

I am not affiliated with Tri County other than I volunteer some time for them.

Permalink Reply by Mark Pond on June 15, 2011 at 1:23pm

Hi Bill --

Here are a few others that haven't been mentioned:

• AHANA (http://www.ahana.org/)
• Spokane Regional International Trade Alliance (http://www.intrade.org/)
• Small Business Development Center (http://www.wsbdc.org/advisor-location?locid=13)
• Spokane Business Builders (http://www.spokanebusinessbuilders.com/)
• Inland NW Partners (http://www.inwp.org/)
• The Entrepreneur's Forum of the Great Northwest (http://www.efgn.org/)
• Business and Industry Programs at Spokane Comm. Colleges (http://www.ccs.spokane.edu/getdoc/661a4d2e-bec2-485b-8b5d-18b18cd65...)
• Executive Women International, Spokane Branch (http://www.ewispokane.org/)
• Inland NW Business Alliance (http://www.inbaspokane.org/)
• Spokane Executives Association (http://www.spokaneexecs.com/)

Sorry I'm late in finding this conversation!  The resources above (and others) are all listed on the library's business page: http://www.spokanelibrary.org/index.php?page=research&cat=findt...

I'm excited to take everyone's suggestions and make sure that they make it onto my library resources page!

Permalink Reply by Bill Kalivas on June 16, 2011 at 8:59pm

Great list Mark, thanks!

Permalink Reply by Coralie Myers on June 23, 2011 at 8:48pm

Bill: SCORE has an online version of its Small Business Resource Guide for Eastern WA and North Idaho online. It can be accessed at: http://www.scorespokane.org/resources.php. 

To all the others in the community, I will be updating the above guide in the near future and would welcome your ideas on additional content that should be added, space permitting. We print about 2,500 of the guides at a time, so we can't add everything we want, but at least we are not lumped together with Seattle as in the SBA Resource Guide.

 

I also have a 20-60 minute presentation that I do on both online and local resources in the area that I would be glad to do for LaunchPad sometime.